“Shit. Give me the details,” Dane said while his heart thundered and he tried to corral the whirl of implications careening around his mind, none of them good. Ronnie gave him a questioning look and Dane mouthed the word ransom. Ronnie’s face went whiter than it went before. Maybe he was smart enough to know that the kidnappers might want something besides money. Like Dane’s sorry ass in a sling. If he was lucky.

  “They want twenty thousand in cash,” her voice had a vibration under the brutishly professional veneer. “And you.”

  Fuck. “Where and when?” His voice went colder than steel and more determined to smash these worms to filthy dust like a tank running over an ant.

  There was a beat of hesitation and then she spoke in a hushed ardent voice. “You know we’re going to back you up, Dane. We’ll get these bastards before they can harm a hair on your head or the twins—”

  “Did you get proof…” He couldn’t make himself finish the sentence, proof of life. Thinking the words caused a pain like there was a meatgrinder loose in his gut, gnawing him into pulp.

  “Yes,” she snarled like she wanted to do violence, like maybe rip the hearts out of the bastard kidnappers and mash them with her bare hands.

  “Where and when?” he asked again.

  “They want you to be at the church in Vineyard Haven with the money at midnight.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Dane returned to the Gable’s with Acer and Ronnie to find Peter, Shana and Sassy waiting in the kitchen. The crowd had disappeared and all that remained was champagne and a lot of over-dressed food. Acer set up his computer at the kitchen island and they all sat with plates of food.

  “Where’s Cap?” Shana asked.

  “On his way. What did you do with the little shit valet?”

  “He’s in the closet,” Peter said, his scowl changing to a grin at the mention.

  Dane nodded. “I’ll drink to that. Keep him out of my sight for both our sakes.”

  “What can I get you to drink?” Bill Gable asked him.

  “Ice water. Preferably intravenous to my veins.”

  “Anything else?”

  “You wouldn’t happen to have twenty grand laying around, would you?”

  “Wish I did. All I have is maybe four or five—”

  “That’ll work. I’ll need some paper and a scissors and we can dress up some stacks to make it all look legit. Not sure if we’ll need it because I’m playing it by ear and these guys are rank amateurs.”

  “I thought we agreed they didn’t want the money,” Shana said.

  “They don’t. They’re playing some kind of game and I’m playing dumb. Mostly because I am dumb in this case because I don’t know Agapov’s real motive beyond getting revenge on his ex-father-in-law. Still not sure about why I’m involved.” Or why they’re babies are involved beyond the obvious and usual motive—to sell them for a profit. Dane wasn’t naive and knew Agapov was likely involved in the human trafficking business which included baby stealing.

  Toly had told him that was the chief reason he got out of the business years ago. He’d wanted no part of that nastiness, especially the baby stealing. Shit. Dane needed to stop dwelling on that and concentrate on getting more information.

  The sound of the front door opening caused them all to jump from their seats, but Cap’s shout from the foyer released their tension. They all sat back down except Dane. Shana put a hand on his arm to keep him close when he moved toward the kitchen door.

  “We’re in the kitchen,” he shouted and sat back down though he wanted to have a private conversation with Cap. Shana’s need for him at here side pulled at his very soul. He wrapped an arm around her and whispered, “We’re going to get our babies back before the morning, girlie.”

  She smiled at his unique term of endearment. Girlie. He remembered when she wanted to slap him for calling her that back in the beginning, back when they first met.

  Cap walked in bringing a waft of cold night air with him and stood at the end of the island.

  “Beauregard is a problem,” he said.

  “What kind of problem?” Dane asked though he feared he knew.

  “He insists that Ivanov is behind the kidnapping and charged him. Then he called the Feds.”

  “You know Toly isn’t involved, right?” Dane said. “He’s as much a victim as we are. His son-in-law wants to see him put in jail and make some money on—”

  “Don’t,” Shana said, firm and loud, shutting down the mention of baby selling. A searing hot knife-like pain shot through his shoulder blades and Dane nearly doubled over with the jolt. Shana touched his back in the exact spot of the burn, easing some of it.

  “Jesus Christ,” he mumbled, grateful for her touch. He’d thought for a second, he might be having heart failure. It wouldn’t surprise him because when the ugly negative possibilities got through his defenses, even for a moment, it felt like his world would end.

  “Why would the bastard want me? It makes no sense. My only connection is Toly, so why isn’t he asking for Toly’s ass? Toly said he’d been making threatening noise lately.”

  “You’ve done business with Toly. Maybe…” Cap said.

  “I haven’t been in the business for almost a year. I’m retired.”

  “The way they see it, all you did is change location because there’s no such thing as retiring from a business like this.”

  “Maybe they really do want Toly,” Dane said. “Behind bars like where he is right now.”

  Shana snapped her eyes around. “You’re brilliant sometimes. You know that?” She kissed him, a triumphant and determined kiss with no romance at all. But he felt the pull all the same and his adrenaline kick doubled down, forcing him to move.

  “That means there’s another motive behind getting me. Which means there’s another person involved.” Dane studied Shana’s eyes to see the exact moment she came to the same conclusion as he had. Her face paled.

  “Acer, find out everything you can on Chief Beauregard—”

  “I might have a few details of interest,” Peter said as he stared at a laptop from the other end of the island.

  A jolt of surprise, fear and excitement hit Dane all at once, forcing him to grip the marble countertop to steady himself. He should be used to this by now. He should be able to keep himself steady and businesslike. This had always been his forte.

  But who was he kidding? This wasn’t like any other operation. This was his children. Plus he’d been out of the business and wasn’t a spring chicken anymore. This was a young man’s game.

  No matter. He hadn’t been a young man since he was fourteen years old and turned in his first perp. Though his back and his knees might argue, he figured he had enough adrenaline to get him through it and could pay the piper for the physical damage to his aging bones later when he was back at home rocking his babies to sleep.

  “What do you have, Peter?” Shana asked the question while Dane struggled to get a grip on a new wave of killer emotions knifing through his shoulders to remind him of his weakness and his humanity.

  “So what do you have on this bastard, Peter?”

  “Wait—what’s going on?” Ronnie said, confusion wrinkling his brows.

  “While you were out,” Shana said almost too casually. “Peter and I had a conversation with the other valets.” She told Dane and the others about the set up with Jason the valet feeding them false information. “We tracked Jason down and it turns out he was on Beauregard’s payroll and none other than the chief’s nephew.”

  Acer said, “You’ll never guess whose name came up when I got into Agapov’s file—”

  “Beauregard.” Dane and Shana said at once.

  “What does Beauregard have to do with this? Why would he—” Cap said.

  “He was the arresting officer the last time Agapov did time just after his divorce from Toly’s daughter,” Acer finished.

  “But what’s Beauregard’s motive?” Cap asked.

  Dane had a guess based on his gut and something familiar about the so-called chief, but he looked to Peter to confirm the answer.

  “According to his file,” Peter said, “Beauregard is the nephew of one former Special Agent Glen Peck.”

  The name Peck settled on the group like a silent bomb and then exploded into horrific enlightenment, bringing the entire picture together.

  “Shit,” Acer said. “Isn’t that the rogue FBI agent we exposed a while back who landed in max security?”

  Dane nodded. It was all he could do considering that his insides froze to dark side of the moon coldness with only the need for vengeance cracking the solid core of darkness.

  Everyone turned to him. Shana touched his arm and he pulled her in, allowing the inferno of her mother bear determination to rescue their babies to galvanize him into reason.

  “Looks like Beauregard is the mastermind with the motive behind this. He recruited Agapov knowing the shit’s interest in baby trafficking and knowing his connection to me via his ex-father-in-law Toly.”

  He took a deep breath while the silence in the rom settled and gathered a new round of energized need for retribution.

  “Guess we won’t be relying on legitimate law enforcement to run down the kidnappers,” Dane said. He turned to Cap and then to Peter.

  Peter said, “I’ll call Special Agent in Charge Warinski in Boston. I know him and he owes me.”

  “But is he honest?” Dane couldn’t help asking. Peter nodded. “How soon can he get to the island?”

  “I’ll find out.” Peter grabbed his phone and placed the call. It took three calls before he got to speak with Warinski and he agreed to come with some agents finally after Peter leaned on him hard making the kind of threats only a U.S. Senator could make, the kind that Dane knew Peter would never make except in these kinds of dire circumstances.

  Dane only hoped that Agapov hadn’t already taken his babies away to the highest bidder, but he was counting on the man’s greed for the twenty large and Beauregard’s caution to make sure they lured Dane with his children.

  “We got a lucky break,” he said out loud after thinking a second.

  “What’s that?” Peter said.

  “The bad guys have once again forgot to account for Shana, underestimating her awesome skills and her lust to kill the bastards who stole our babies.” He found Shana’s eyes and they connected on a deep sense of satisfaction and confidence that they could do this, together, one more time.

  “Who’s coming with me?” Shana said. “Not that I need anyone this time.”

  “I’m in,” Acer said, shutting down his laptop.

  “You know I’ll be there,” Cap said.

  “Cap, you go with Shana. Acer you’re with me,” Dane said.

  “I’ll go with you too, Dane,” Ronnie said. “I’ll keep out of the way.”

  Dane nodded. “Peter, you meet the feds and get them to police headquarters.”

  Dane and Shana lead the group out the front door taking the briefcase filled with money from the Gable’s and leaving them behind in their rush to get to their babies.

  It was twenty minutes until midnight and the church was ten minutes away.

  CHAPTER 11

  Shana and Dane took separate cars and different routes. They knew the church. Ironically it was the church where Lara and Sergey Agapov had gotten married, where Dane and Shana had protected them from an outside threat. Leave it to Agapov to have a sick sense of humor and send them all here back to the scene of his original crime. At least the marriage had been a crime in Dane’s opinion.

  Shana would sneak into the basement through a side window that was largely hidden by bushes.

  Dane would walked in the front door and raised the brief case of money.

  “If you want money, let’s get on with the exchange now,” he shouted into the silent gloom. A few lights flickered at the front and she worried about what happened to the priest who wasn’t here. Not a good thought. A distraction.

  But at least it kept his mind off the fact that they were cutting the deadline close—not that he thought Agapov was a stickler for deadlines, but because it was best practice to be early and do reconnaissance. The only thing saving them was that they knew the church. Shana knew the church and she was coming in from the back.

  Cap was right behind her. It felt good having him at her back, she wouldn’t kid herself, but not for the obvious reason because she could handle this all by herself. Whoever she ran into was a goner.

  No, she was glad to have Cap backing her because it felt right, like where he should be, back where he’d always been as if the stars were aligned once again.

  After she and Cap cleared the basement and found it empty, Shana reached the top of the stairs and closed her eyes, willing her heart to calm its thundering pace. She had to find their babies. They had to be here. Picturing the vestibule and the alter, she knew once she opened the stairwell door, to her left, the vestibule, a small room to the side of the alter would be there and she’d be open and exposed.

  She checked her watch. It was one minute past mid-night. The place was still silent and she listened carefully. Dane was counting on her to find the babies while he stalled and bargained whatever he could with the likes of Agapov. They didn’t know if Olga would be with him or even Beauregard for that matter.

  She opened her eyes as she felt the next minute tick by and knew it was time to move, as planned. Her hand wrapped around the doorknob and she heard a murmur on the other side of the door. She recognized that sound. It was Katy. The next voice she heard, a harsh croaking whisper, exploded a burst of adrenaline like she’d ever felt before and she slammed the door open, turned left and rushed into the vestibule in the direction of the first thing she saw.

  Her eyes had lasered in on her babies. They were on the floor bundled in blankets like they were trapped, but they were alive and whole and her heart elevated into her throat, barely stopping before she lost it altogether.

  Self-preservation, years of prior training imposing themselves and Cap on her heels all leapt to her defense and she turned as Olga lunged at her with a knife out. Lowering, she tackled the woman in the mid-section, barreling her backwards and away from the babies who shrieked and cried. Cap came forward and went for the woman, but she was quick and rolled away from them both.

  Holding the knife up, this time instead of lunging at Shana, the mad woman lunged toward her babies. Shana almost blacked out with fear, but went for her gun in the back of her pants. Before she could find it, before the woman reached her babies waving her knife, a shot rang out and the woman fell back against one of the chairs.

  Cap had shot the woman who lay motionless and bleeding from her forehead. He rushed forward to disarm the woman, but Shana didn’t care. Tomorrow she would care, maybe later she would care that Cap shot the woman and whether he’d killed her. Right now she rushed to her crying babies and gathered them in her arms.

  Dane listened for a response to his shout as it echoed in the church. But what he heard was a faint, but distinct murmuring and he knew it wasn’t Agapov because he’d know that sound anywhere. It was Katy.

  Holding back the strongest need he’d ever felt in his life to go to her, to rescue his baby girl, was the hardest thing he ever remembered doing. But Shana was there, or she would be and he had to trust her.

  “Take a seat in the last pew,” a Russian accented voice barked at him. Here we go. Dane didn’t move, but he glanced to his right where the voice came from and as his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw Agapov, predictably holding a gun straight out aimed at his head.

  “I have the money, now where are my—”

  “In the pew. This isn’t about the money, you asshole.”

  “No kidding,” Dane said, listening for signs that Shana was inside and that she’d found Katy and Colt. He had to distract Agapov and keep him talking for another minute to give Shana a chance before all hell broke loose. He knew Acer and Ronnie were following his lead.

  “Tell your friends one false move and I shoot you in the head.”

  “What friends?” Dane said, sounding convincing.

  Sergey laughed. Maybe not so convincing. “Put the briefcase down slowly and get in the fucking pew.”

  “What’s with the pew?” Dane said, bending slightly as if he were going to put the briefcase down. This was it. His last chance. He hoped to hell Shana was ready.

  Then he heard it. A commotion immediately followed by shrieking—his babies’ shrieking—from the front of the church.

  Sergey flinched and his eyes darted in the direction of the sound for the briefest flash, but that was all Dane needed. He threw the briefcase at the man’s gun hand while he went for the gun in his pants. Sergey’s gun went off, but it hit the pew. Dane dove when he realized the man hadn’t dropped his weapon.

  He rolled and took cover behind a row of pews and heard his back up coming. Someone shot the gun from his hand and figured it was a toss up between Acer and Ronnie since they were both marksmen. But that didn’t stop Sergey who picked up the briefcase and lunged at Dane.

  Taken by surprise, for the first and hopefully last time in his career, he dropped his gun and found himself in close hand-to-hand combat with Sergey as they rolled on the floor.

  “Shit,” he heard Acer’s voice as his friends came inside.

  Sergey was young and strong and angry and vicious. But that didn’t give the man any advantage as he dodged the slam of his fist. Because Dane was fighting for more than his life. He was fighting for his babies’ lives.

  He reared up and headbutted Agapov in a quick surprise move. Even though it made Dane dizzy, it got the man off him and he scrambled to his feet. He then kicked him and when Sergey crawled back against a wall to a stand and pulled a knife, that didn’t stop Dane.

  As the man arced the knife in his direction, Dane moved sideways and grabbed his wrist, disarmed him and stuck him in the gut with his own knife. The loud whining sound Sergey made didn’t stop Dane from taking him by the throat.